Technical data:

North American F-86 K Sabre

Designation

Sabre

Sabrejet

History

The Sabre was the Americans’ most important combat aircraft during the Korean War, 1950 to 1953. The aircraft type was already being planned in 1944, but when the Americans learned about German experiences with jet fighters, the plans were changed and the aircraft was given swept-back wings and a turbojet with an axial compressor. This gave the aircraft a speed of close to Mach 1 (the speed of sound).

The F-86 Sabre was manufactured in the USA and five other countries and over 8,000 of them were built in several variants. The aircraft type was in production from 1947 to 1961. The F-86F was in use until 1994 (Bolivia) and has probably beaten most operational age records for jet fighters. The fighter bomber F-86F came to Norway as the replacement for the F-84 Thunderjet. The first 30 F-86Fs arrived in 1957, and in the period up to 1961 a total of 116 aircraft of this type were delivered. The last F-86Fs were scrapped in 1967 and cut up or sent back to the USA. A few were set aside for museum purposes.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force Museum’s F-86F has USAF serial number 53-1206. It came to Norway in 1958 as part of NATO’s Military Assistance Program and the aircraft had an accumulated flying time of 824 hours when it was transferred to 336 Squadron at Rygge. A short time afterwards the aircraft went on to 331 Squadron at Bodø and had the letter code FN-D painted on. In 1961 FN-D had a mid-air collision with another plane during air combat training, but fortunately the damage was slight. The following year the aircraft was transferred to 338 Squadron at Ørlandet. That was its home until it was taken out of operational service in 1966 and put into storage. By then the aircraft had accumulated 2,774 hours of flying time. In 1978 it was transferred to the Norwegian Defence Museum. It was then restored and was given the paint scheme and markings it had had in 331 Squadron.

Description

The aircraft appears in unpainted aluminium. The air intake and 331 Squadron’s lightning flash on the side of the fuselage are painted in blue. The vertical fin bears a ‘fin-flash’ in national colours. The cartoon character Dennis is shown on the left side of the fuselage. The registration letters and serial number are in black. The aerofoils have RNoAF roundels on the top and bottom sides.